Glen Garry Glen Ross

Glengarry Glen Ross (in Spain, Success at any price; in Latin America, The Price of Ambition) is a 1992 American drama film directed by James Foley and based on the play of the same name by David Mamet, who also wrote the screenplay.

Plot

At a real estate company in the city of Chicago, a very tempting challenge is issued to all employees: the best salesperson will be rewarded with a Cadillac, the second most efficient with a set of knives, and the one who sells the least will be fired. Salespeople react in different ways: they start to set themselves up and think about how to sell or at least avoid being the worst salesperson, even stealing referral files (containing information about potential customers) to achieve success.

Cast

• Al Pacino: Ricky Roma
• Jack Lemmon: Sheldon "Shelley" Levene
• Alec Baldwin: Blake
• Alan Arkin: George Aaronow
• Ed Harris: Dave Moss
• Kevin Spacey: John Williamson
• Jonathan Pryce: James Lingk
• Bruce Altman: Larry Spannel
• Jude Ciccolella: Detective Baylen

Production

David Mamet's play was first performed in 1983 at the National Theater in London. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. That same year, the play had its American debut in Chicago before moving to Broadway. Producer Jerry Tokofsky read the play on a trip to New York City in 1985 at the suggestion of director Irvin Kershner, who wanted to make it into a film. Tokofsky saw the play on Broadway and contacted Mamet. Stanley R. Zupnik was a Washington, D.C.-based B-movie producer looking for a more profitable project. Tokofsky had co-produced two previous Zupnik films. In 1986, Tokofsky told Zupnik about the Mamet play, and Zupnik saw it on Broadway, but found the plot confusing.

Mamet wanted $500,000 for the movie rights and another $500,000 to write the script. Zupnik agreed to pay the million that Mamet was asking for, thinking they could strike a deal with a cable company to finance the production. Due to the uncompromising subject matter and abrasive language, no major studio wanted to fund it, even with movie stars involved. Funding came from cable and video companies, a German television station, an Australian cinema chain, several banks, and New Line Cinema over the course of four years.

Al Pacino originally wanted to do the play on Broadway, but at the time he was doing another production of Mamet, American Buffalo, in London. He expressed interest in appearing in the film adaptation. In 1989, Tokofsky asked Jack Lemmon to star in the film. During this time, Kershner dropped out to make another film, as did Pacino. Alec Baldwin, also in the cast, was to play the role of Roma vacated by Pacino. Baldwin reportedly left the project over a contract disagreement, though the real reason was that Pacino was still being considered for Rome and would be cast over Baldwin if he accepted the role. James Foley's agent sent his client Mamet's script in early 1991, but Foley was reluctant to direct because he "wanted great actors, people with cinematic charisma, to give him visibility, especially since locations were so restricted." Foley took the script to Pacino, with whom he had been trying to work on a film for years.

In March 1991, Tokofsky contacted Baldwin and begged him to reconsider making the film. Baldwin's character was written specifically for the actor, to be included in the film version as he was not part of the original play. Tokofsky recalled: "Alec said, 'I've read 25 scripts and nothing's as good as this. Alright. If you make it, I'll do it.' The two men arranged an informal reading with Lemmon in Los Angeles. The three men subsequently hosted readings with various other actors, as Lemmon recalled "some of the best fucking actors you'll ever see came in and read and I'm talking names". Tokofsky's lawyer, Jake Bloom, called a meeting at the Creative Artists Agency, which represented many of the actors on the project, and asked for their help. CAA showed little interest, but two of its clients, Ed Harris and Kevin Spacey, soon joined the cast.

Due to the film's modest budget, many of the actors suffered significant pay cuts. For example, Pacino reduced his salary per film from $6 million to $1.5 million, Lemmon received $1 million, and Baldwin received $250,000. This did not stop other actors, such as Bruce Willis, Robert De Niro, Richard Gere, and Joe Mantegna expressed interest in the film. Mantegna had been in the original cast of Broadway and won a Tony Award in 1985 for his portrayal of Roma.

Once the film was cast, it rehearsed for three weeks. With a budget of $12.5 million, filming began in August 1991 at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York, and in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, over 39 days. Harris recalled, "There were five-page and six-page scenes that we shot all at once. It was more like doing a play in moments where you had continuity." Alan Arkin said of the script: "What made it challenging was the language and the rhythms, which are enormously difficult to absorb." filming, some actors who were not supposed to film on certain days would show up anyway to watch the performances of the other actors.

During production, Tokofsky and Zupnik had a fight over money and credits for the film. Tokofsky sued to strip Zupnik of producer credit and of the producer's share of the fees. Zupnik claimed that he personally contributed $2 million of the film's budget and alleged that Tokofsky was fired for embezzlement.

Reception

Ticket office

Glengarry Glen Ross had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where Jack Lemmon won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. Also, it was originally scheduled to screen at the Montreal Film Festival, but it had to be exhibited out of competition as it had already competed at the Venice Festival. Instead, its North American premiere was at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film had its domestic release on October 2, 1992 in 416 theaters, grossing $2.1 million in its opening weekend. It ultimately grossed a total of $10.7 million in North America, below its budget of $12.5 million.

Criticism

The film has a rating of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 55 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5 out of 10. The consensus reads: "This adaptation of David Mamet's play is as compelling and witty as its original material, thanks in no small part to an intelligent script and a cast of top-notch actors". On Metacritic, the film has a rating of 80 out of 100, based on 14 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Owen Gleiberman gave the film an "A" grade in his review for Entertainment Weekly, calling Lemmon's performance "a revelation" and describing his character as "the soul of Weasel from Glengarry Glen Ross: Willy Loman turned into a one-liner joke." In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert wrote: "The dialogue de Mamet has a kind of logic, a cadence, that allows people to successfully reach the end of sentences that we couldn't have imagined. There is great energy in that. You can see the joy with which these actors appropriate these great lines, after going through films in which flat dialogue only serves to advance the story.” In the Chicago Reader, Jonathan Rosenbaum praised Foley for his "superb sensibility for David Mamet's haunted, bouncy beats, macho invective and all" and called the film "an excellent 1992 installment of the tour de force play." of Mamet." Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune wrote that the film was "a well-written, well-staged and well-acted piece, though there is something damp about its aesthetic, that of the enormous acting of the method, scattered over a fragile and unique world".